The Rising ‘Wealth-Poverty Gap’: How Prosperity and Hardship Are Found Cheek by Jowl in Across England.
In Nunsthorpe, inhabitants occupy homes only several yards from their more affluent neighbours in nearby Scartho village. A 1.8-metre-high wall physically divides the two communities in the town of Grimsby, blocking off paths and streets that once connected them.
“This is the posh-poor divide,” said a resident, 37. “It has been there since I’ve known. I doubt they’ll take it down because I don’t think they’ll want to mix with us.”
An Increasingly Common National Picture
Analysis of government figures shows how deep disparity often exists, at times over little more than a short distance of tarmac, a line of hedges or a wall. Years of austerity and underinvestment have led to a situation where a majority of councils now have a neighbourhood ranking as one of the most deprived in the nation.
This spread of poverty has led to a sharp rise in the quantity of locations where deprived and affluent people find themselves as immediate neighbours. In 2019, just 65 of the most deprived neighbourhoods adjoined one of the least deprived. That figure increased to 119 in the most recent data.
A Barrier Which Divides More Than Land
In Grimsby, the gap is the biggest in the UK and painfully apparent. The wall is much more than a metaphorical division; it creates tangible difficulties for daily routines.
- School runs that should take a quarter of an hour become an sixty-minute journey.
- Access to important amenities like supermarkets, schools and employment centres is made more difficult.
- The site can attract vandalism and loitering, with instances of litter being dumped over the wall and other problems.
“People strive to maintain a well-kept home and garden, and then you live opposite that,” noted one local, gesturing towards the rusted barricade.
Local Bonds Amidst Hardship
At Centre4, staff stress that support does not recognise addresses. “Your postcode is not a reliable indicator of your level of challenge,” said director a community leader.
Despite ranking in the lowest 10% for income, employment, education, health and crime, Nunsthorpe retains a strong sense and sense of community among its inhabitants. By contrast, the neighbouring area is classified among the most prosperous 10% nationally.
Echoes Elsewhere: An Estate in Kent
This pattern is mirrored nationally. The Stanhope area in Ashford, Kent, a 1960s housing development, is in the 10% most deprived of areas in the country. It is closely bordered by large houses built in the 2000s that sit in the wealthiest tenth for employment and living environment.
“They may possess bigger houses, but here there’s more community,” said a long-term resident, aged 63. “It’s likely a lot of people over there never even talk to each other.”
The economic divide is evident: an typical three-bedroom house sells for about £275,000 on the estate, while on the other side equivalent homes go for about £410,000.
Residents describe a tangible feeling of neglect. “Our neighbourhood is neglected,” said holistic health worker Susan Riley-Nevers. “In this area our facilities have slowly been taken away, and the majority of the issues we face here are related to financial hardship.”
The rise in these ‘deprivation divides’ presents a portrait of an increasingly segregated England, where prosperity and deprivation are often awkwardly in close proximity.
